VISHVENDU JAIPURIAR
Hazaribag, Jan 19: As the Punai village of Daru block has become a place of maximum footfall since 2021 due to a temple constructed from Rs 10 crore, a neighbouring village Mangura of Ichak is also on the same path. Villagers of five villages took Sankalp to construct the grandest and most attractive temple of the district in Mangura in the next three years with the bhumi pujan for this project to take place on Jan 28.
Nageshwar Prasad Mehta, the brain behind this project ruled out the claim that they are following Punai.
“Notably, Mangura is having an ancient Durga Mandap but no efforts were ever taken for its renovation. All of a sudden, it came to my find to convert this mandap into a grand Durga mandir and so I shared my plan with villagers and all agreed,” he said.
ALSO READ: Dadai Dubey keeps Congress high command on tenterhooks over INTUC
Mehta said other than Mangura, villages like Kariyatpur, Moktama, Furka and Jamuari came together in this project. A Patna-based architect has designed the temple with the ground floor having two halls and rooms for marriages.
The upper floor will have the temple of Goddess Durga, added Mehta.
“Initially, we will spend Rs three crore but this project is much bigger. Once ready, this temple will be grand attracting devotees to come here. We have the plan to develop a garden and other facilities for devotees as well,” added he.
The distance between Punai temple and Mangura village is only five km. Mangura is situated 19 km away from Hazaribag district headquarters. The Ichak block is known as the temple town of Hazaribag which has hundreds of ancient temples constructed by the then-rulers of the Ramgarh dynasty.